Dear SaaStr: What Are The 3 Most Important Traits of a SaaS Founder?
I think 3 things matter most:
1. Ability to Ship a Great Sellable Product to Market and get it up to $1-$2m in ARR. However it gets done.
Build a team. Code it yourself. Outsource it in part. I don’t really care. There are many paths great teams use to get here. To get to Initial Traction when others quit after they ship a nice product, but with insufficient customers and revenue.
2. Ability to Attract Talent to Scale the Business and Executive the Vision.
Even if you launch a great product, get to $1m-$2m-$3m in ARR, if you can’t bring in a great VP, Sales; a great VP, Marketing; a great VP Client Success, etc. … you’ll fall apart around $4-$5m in ARR.
3. Ability to Execute and React and Reposition in a Changing Market.
We’re seeing many founders stumble here these days, when times are a bit tougher and when AI is disrupting many markets. The reality is many entrepreneurs don’t want to change when the market changes. Many mentally quit, or do a “tilt”, and call it a day. In SaaS, you’re going to have to tilt in some fashion multiple times. To go upmarket, or downmarket. To add a sales team from a freemium model. To built integrations and functionality very different than you planned in order to catch and pass the competition. Your SaaS product and team will look very different in 3-7 years than it does on Day 1.
If you don’t have these 3 in SaaS as well, you won’t be a big success.
If you don’t have 1, 2 and 3 in you (and most of us don’t have all 3), either don’t do it, or bring in a CEO who can do it for you.
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
